Seaside Jewish Community Religious School

Faculty

    Education Director:

            Allison Colker

SHALOM! My name is Allison Colker and I will be Seaside Jewish Community Religious School’s Education Director. I originate from Baltimore and am also affiliated with a congregation in Owings Mills, Maryland. I began my Jewish studies at the JCC pre-school and Solomon Schechter Day School. During college, I took Jewish Education courses at the Baltimore Hebrew University. I have teaching experience in both the Religious School setting and the nursery school setting. I enjoyed teaching fourth grade Judaic Studies and Hebrew at a synagogue in Reisterstown, Maryland. I then had the pleasure of teaching fifth grade Jewish Studies and Hebrew, sixth grade Hebrew, and eighth/ninth/tenth grade Haskalah electives at a synagogue in Falls Church, Virginia. I then enjoyed teaching fifth grade Religious School and Hebrew School, sixth grade Hebrew School, and seventh grade Hebrew School at a synagogue in Gaithersburg, Maryland. I am both ready and excited to direct Seaside Jewish Community Religious School this year.

    Alef Class:

            Karen & Jay Freid

SHALOM!. My name is Karen Freid. My husband, Jay Freid, and I will be your child’s Religious School teachers for the upcoming year. Jay and I will be co-teaching your child because of weekend work commitments at the hospital. You may have met us already since our two daughters, Sara (12 years old) and Emily (9 years old), have been attending Religious School at Seaside for the past 2 years. Our family has lived in the Lewes area for the past 12 years. I am originally from the Midwest (Michigan and Ohio), while my husband grew up around the Washington D.C area. We met at the University of Michigan, where I attended pharmacy school, and my husband attended both engineering and medical school. Go Blue!

Jay and I are excited about the prospect of teaching Religious School at Seaside. We feel that serving as teachers will be a great example to our children and demonstrate to them the importance of a religious education and the Jewish community.  In the upcoming year we will be focusing on Jewish holidays, lessons from the Torah, and learning letters of the Hebrew alphabet. As in past years, music, dance, and art will be incorporated into the curriculum. We hope to make your child’s learning experience at Seaside fun and interesting. We are looking forward to teaching your child this year.

        Bet Class:

            Pam Kaplan

SHALOM! My name is Pam Kaplan and I will be the the Bet teacher for your child during the 2009-2010 school year at the Seaside Religious School. I reside in Lewes with my family, my husband David, daughter Morgan and son Jacob. My daughter Morgan will also be teaching school this year and my son Jacob is a student in the Hay Class. I have been a part of the school since it began and have held the roles of room parent, substitute teacher and for the past 2 years I have taught the Dalet and Hay classes. It has been a priviledge and pleasure teaching and learning from your children. I am looking forward to the exciting year ahead.

        Gimmel Class:

            Morgan Kaplan

SHALOM! My name is Morgan Kaplan and I will be your child's Religious School teacher for the Gimmel class this year. I am very excited and ready for the year to begin. My family and I have lived in Lewes for 3 years full time and 9 years on weekends and the summer. We have been Seaside members for about eight years and have enjoyed everything about it. My family is very involved in Seaside. My mom is teaching the Bet class and is also on the Youth Education Committee. My brother is in the Hay class, as he is becoming a bar mitzvah in two years. I have attended Seaside Religious School since its start and loved it! I hope your child will feel the same way I did and still do. I had the wonderful experience of becoming a Bat Mitzvah in October of 2006 and I was honored to be Confirmed in the spring of 2008. I have tutored for two years and I have substituted religious school classes. This will be my second year of teaching at the religious school.

I have gotten to know many of you and your children over the years and I am excited about teaching them again this year. I feel confident that your child and I are going to have a lot of fun learning and I am looking forward to the beginning of the school year.

        Dalet Class

            Jason Bradley

SHALOM!  My name is Jason Bradley and I will be teaching the Dalet Class this year. Many of you know me as the father of Aaron and Ryan Bradley and also as the breakfast cook on Sunday mornings. Last year, I taught the Bet Class Hebrew. Over the last five years, I have been a substitute teacher and room parent many times at Seaside. I look forward to the new opportunity to teach full time.  My Jewish education began very young as the grandson of an Orthodox Jew in Brooklyn, N.Y. I attended the Ozone Park Jewish Center Yeshiva from first through sixth grades. There I studied Hebrew, Jewish culture and law, Talmud, as well as math, science, English, etc. Shortly after graduating, I was a Bar Mitzvah student at the Rockwood Park Jewish Center in Howard Beach, N.Y. After graduating from Stuyvesant H.S., I attended the University of Maryland, College Park, where I received a B.A.in Psychology. After living in the metro D.C. area for 20 years, I moved with my wife, Melanie, and two boys to the Cape region seven years ago. I am currently a restaurant manager at Cracker Barrel and run my own commercial cleaning business.  I am enthusiastic about the upcoming school year and I hope to establish a partnership with you and your child in regards to their Religious education. Please let me know what I can do to help with your child's studies.

Hay Class

   Jeffrey Hawtof & Ryan Colker

SHALOM! My name is Jeffrey Hawtof and I will be your child’s Religious School teacher. I am originally from Baltimore, Maryland and was afliated with Temple Beth El where I completed my confirmation studies. I have been a full time physician here in Sussex County for over 12 years now. I was on the Board of Directors of Seaside and I am a past president of the congregation. The Religious school saw its first days while I was president. Over the past few years I have been teaching music at our religious school and last year I co-taught the Dalet class.  Our curriculum for this year includes various components. In religious school, we will have three main content areas: Jewish History, Holocaust, and Klal Yisrael. Through these concentrations, I hope to instill in your child a sense of Jewish identity and “connectedness.” My Hebrew class will reinforce some important prayers from Shabbat services as well as Parashat from Genesis.  I am looking forward to teaching your child this year.

Vav Class

    Joel Simon & Meyer Persow & Allison Colker

SHALOM! My name is Joel Simon and I will be one of the teachers instructing students preparing for Bar and Bat Mitzvah this year. I am excited for my second year in this role at Seaside and look forward to working with your child.  I am originally from Wilmington, Delaware and received an excellent Jewish education from that community. I began my school years at Albert Einstein Academy (a private Jewish day school) in Wilmington where I attended school for kindergarten and first grade. I then continued my education at Adas Kodesh Shel Emeth through my Bar-Mitzvah. While attending my community’s public high school, I continued my Jewish education by graduating from Gratz Hebrew High School through taking Sunday and evening courses.  I have served students as a Social Studies Teacher and Guidance Counselor for 16 years. Currently I am employed by the Cape Henlopen School District. I enjoy working with Middle School and High School students and I believe that my passion for helping and serving these students in the school system will allow me to serve the children at Seaside.  I live in Lewes with my wife Alyssa, son Ethan, and daughter Emily. We are an active family at Seaside and enjoy the camaraderie of the community.

Shalom uvracha. My name is Meyer Persow and I’ll be your child’s Religious School teacher. I’m originally from Denver, Colorado, having moved to the DC area in 1987. My partner and I moved to Rehoboth Beach full-time in November 2005 and simply love it. And to be a member of an thriving Jewish Community at the beach is very exciting. I began my Jewish studies at the Hebrew Educational Alliance in Denver where I attended the Religious School from the first grade through the confirmation class (10th grade). After graduating from HEA, I taught in the Religious School for 5 years, teaching grades Kindergarten through 7th grade. I also studied at a yeshiva in St. Louis and Denver for 2 years during high school.  I hold degrees in Political Science and Secondary Education from the University of Denver. During college, I was a member of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, the oldest Jewish fraternity in the United States. I spent the 2006-2007 school year teaching our youngest members in the Alef class.  After taking time off to help elect our state’s first Jewish governor, I am returning to Seaside to help prepare our B’nai Mitzvah students.  Becoming a Bar or Bat Mitzvah is another milestone in the life of a Jew. With my fellow co-teachers, Allison Colker and Joel Simon, we will work earnestly to prepare your child for this important event.